Max Smith, wtop.com
WASHINGTON — Years in the making, local leaders are promising a big new development with lots of new jobs.
Montgomery County is partnering with the Global LifeSci Development Corporation to build offices, homes, businesses and more on 300 acres of land next to the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak.
“This multi-use development will literally transform a brown field into a world class bioscience park and research center,” County Executive Ike Leggett says.
The director of the county’s Department of Economic Development, Steve Silverman, says the project will produce “thousands and thousands of jobs.”
“The jobs that will be created, the tax base that will be created right here in east county, is an important step forward in continuing to pay for the programs and services that have made Montgomery County a great community,” Silverman says.
Percontee, Inc., the parent company of the developer, owns 185 acres of the site, and the county owns 115 adjacent acres known as “Site 2” that used to belong to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. The properties also connect to the planned site for a new Washington Adventist Hospital.
There are still lots of steps that need to take place before a groundbreaking.
“We’ve got to finish a master plan process, and we’ve got to address transportation needs on the Route 29 corridor,” Silverman says. “There’s no point in putting together a development that can’t get built because no one can get there.”
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